Sophie, In Shadow by Eileen Kernaghan

Author:Eileen Kernaghan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV014000, JUV016030
Publisher: Thistledown Press
Published: 2014-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

ALEX HAD MADE A NEW friend. Darius Mehta was a young Indian from Bombay who had recently taken his degree in natural sciences at Balliol College, Oxford. Now he was in Gangtok as a member of Tom Grenville-Smith’s research team, helping to lay the groundwork for the zoological survey of India. That at least was how he explained his presence in Sikkim, though Sophie suspected that he had been asked by Tom to keep a watchful eye on the Grenville-Smith household in Tom and Thekong’s absence. Darius called both Sophie and Alex “Miss Memsahib” just as Thekong did, though with a smile that belied the deference in the title.

Alex was instantly smitten, for as she explained to Sophie, he knew everything there was to know about the habits of the snow leopard and the red panda — her favourite Himalayan beasts — and he was always ready to answer her questions. Sophie liked him too, though with more discretion. His unselfconscious charm — and his enthusiasm for cricket — put her fondly in mind of those young Oxford and Cambridge friends of her English childhood.

Returning from the market one Saturday morning Sophie and Alex followed the path that led past the cricket field. A match had just finished as they arrived, and they saw Darius, in white trousers and open-necked white shirt, standing on the pitch. Catching sight of Alex and Sophie he gave them a friendly wave.

“Did you win?” Alex called out as she waved back.

“We did indeed. Hang on a bit while I collect my gear, and I’ll walk you home.”

They waited for him at the edge of the field. “Sophie,” said Alex, in a thoughtful voice, “Don’t you think that Darius looks like a prince?”

“A prince? Really?”

“Yes. A Prince of Persia. Like Prince Farouz-Schah in ‘The Story of the Magic Horse’. Do you suppose he might really be a prince, Sophie?”

“It’s hardly likely,” said Sophie, smiling. There were plenty of princes in India, and probably several at Oxford, but she knew that Darius was a scholarship student, the son of a minor Bombay civil servant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.